“The Portuguese police have tried to find and interview all known paedophiles” has admitted a source close to the investigation quoting the detectives of the McCann’s.
According to this source, who is still quoting the two English detectives, “the questionings were not as complete as they could have been” leading them to verify all the leads developed by the Judicial Police up until the archiving of the case.
According to the investigation reports (volume II pages 293 to 297), one part still being under the secrecy of justice, the work carried out by the PJ to find and question all the individuals reported for the practise of sexual crimes, started immediately after Maddies’ disappearance – on May 6, the inspectors Manuel Lico, Nuno Martins, Luis Fontes, Frederico Louro, Pedro Maia and José Matos have investigated more than 14 suspects, among them, an individual who is working as an expert at the Judicial Court of Portimão.
“All the individuals known or suspect in paedophilia cases or sexual assault were verified quickly” said a PJ source, adding that “only the English were verified later, because the information took a long time to get to us, but we have not found any link between the suspects and the disappearance of the little girl”.
Questioned about the work of the Portuguese authorities, a former private investigator of Kate and Gerry McCann admitted that “Gonçalo Amaral did exactly everything that could be done, and any team trying to investigate Maddies’ disappearance can only hope for a stroke of luck.”

The detectives want to question a very violent predator

Charles O´Neill, the man who the two former police officers hired by the parents of Madeleine McCann want to interrogate now, is a Scot who lived in Gran Canaria and who is in jail awaiting trial for homicide. The private detectives, who continue with the McCann’s campaign, admit not knowing whether the man was at least in Portugal the night of Madeleine’s disappearance, but are saying that he is one of seven people of “interest” to their investigation.
The Scot, described as an “extremely violent paedophile predator”, has a past filled with paedophilia crimes where the victims were always boys. According to the Spanish authorities, who have investigated the predator’s criminal career in their country, nothing indicates the existence of a link with Maddies’ disappearance, but the man is one of the suspects “who deserves to be investigated at length in the disappearance cases that occurred in the archipelago of the Canaries” confirmed an investigator.
The private detectives have already ruled out some of the first suspects, including two Portuguese who live close to Praia da Luz, Mário and Joaquim, and a German, but still maintain an interest in a British citizen identified as Andrew.

In a reply sent today to Lusa, the Portuguese news agency, the Public Prosecutor Office qualified all the information published in the press regarding the British paedophile, Raymond Hewlett, as “speculation”.
The presumed suspect, identified and sentenced as a paedophile by the British authorities in cases dating back to the 70s, has admitted that he was in the Algarve the night of Madeleine McCann’s disappearance, but the Prosecutor still considers that the information is not sufficient to reopen the investigation.
In the reply sent to the news agency, the Public Prosecutor Office has confirmed being “alert to the signs that are appearing” and ready to reopen the investigation “when concrete facts emerge that the magistrates coordinating the process consider important and credible”. According to the Public Prosecutor, the “speculation, opinions or comments are not sufficient to reopen the investigation”.
Hewlett, aged 64 and in the final phase of a terminal cancer, is not the first “suspect” identified in the British press, but he has become the centre of attention. Clarence Mitchell, spokesperson for Kate and Gerry McCann, has convinced an English newspaper this week not to reveal the photos of two presumed suspects of Portuguese and German nationality. The tabloid was getting ready to identify the two men as “principal suspects” but the specialist in communication and public relations has rejected this information.

Gonçalo Amaral, former coordinator of the investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, launches a new book with a compilation of essays on crime in Portugal, signed by several specialists in the matter.
Coordinated by Gonçalo Amaral himself, “Justice and Delinquency” is a compilation of opinions, proposals, solutions and analysis written by judges, lawyers, prosecutors, a criminal investigation coordinator, a journalist and a psychologist.
Among the authors of “Justice and Delinquency” are: Rui Rangel (Judge), Maria dos Santos Ribeiro (Judge), Maria Clara Oliveira (Prosecutor), Marta Daniela Seixas (Deputy Prosecutor), Paulo Sargento (psychologist and university professor), Hernâni Carvalho (journalist and psychologist), and the lawyer Manuel Augusto Meireis.
The former coordinator of the Judicial Police (PJ), author of “Maddie, the truth of the lie” (“Maddie, l’enquête interdite”, the French version available in Belgium and France), will present his new book “Justice and Delinquency” on 25 June 2009, at the bookshop “Alethea” in Lisbon.

The couple wants between 100 and 500 thousand Euros compensation

One hundred to 500 thousand Euros compensation is the amount Kate and Gerry McCann want to receive from Gonçalo Amaral, the former coordinator of the Department of Criminal Investigation (DIC) of the Judicial Police (PJ) of Portimão. The lawsuit, according to the McCanns, aims at putting money into the fund that the couple uses to finance its expenditures of the campaign they have promoted since the disappearance of their daughter.
The information has been confirmed to the 24horas by a source of the “Madeleine’s Fund – Leaving No Stone Unturned”, the financial fund created by Maddie’s parents nine days after the disappearance of the child.
“The couple is hoping to receive at least a six-digit compensation,” said the same source adding that “other legal actions are not excluded, which will help putting money into the Find Madeleine fund and helping the campaign.” 24horas knows that since 2007 – soon after Kate and Gerry McCann’s return to England – the couple’s lawyers have a list of media, of journalists and even of Portuguese and English blogs that the McCanns are looking at as a possible “target”.
Gonçalo Amaral is the main target of the McCanns: according to the same source, the person in charge of the investigation into Maddie’s disappearance is “the only person who continues to question Madeleine’s abduction” and this “affects the credibility of the couple and the work of the investigators”.
The former PJ coordinator’s movements have always been the target of greatest attention for the detectives hired by the McCanns – an initiative started off by the Spanish people from Metodo 3 but remaining up to date in a report disclosing information about Gonçalo Amaral’s private and professional life and lists details such as the family’s bank accounts, and even the list of their closest friends. Part of this report, however, has been transmitted to a Portuguese lawyer who has used it in declarations and accusations related to another process.
The lawsuits seem to be the best means Kate and Gerry McCann found to finance their activities of the “Find Madeleine” campaign – a private organisation mainly managed by the family and now having Kate and Gerry as directors.
After having received more than 700,000 Euros compensation in lawsuits against various English newspapers, which have never gone through any court rooms, the couple is now aiming at various targets in Portugal: “It is clear that Amaral is the main target, but other possibilities exist, especially amongst the media and on the internet where defamatory statements regarding the couple have been made,” said the same source.

The millionaire “drops” his support

Despite the numerous donations made to the “Find Madeleine” fund since Kate and Gerry McCann’s interview at Oprah’s talk-show – a North American television programme that SIC has broadcasted in Portugal – the financial capacity of the fund no longer is the one the couple got used to in 2007, and even the Scottish multimillionaire Brian Kennedy turned his back on the expenses of Clarence Mitchell, the spokesperson of Maddie’s parents.
As 24horas already revealed in March this year, the multimillionaire, Brian Kennedy, ceased to support the activities of the McCanns alleging financial reasons to justify his withdrawal. Clarence Mitchell, the spokesperson of Kate and Gerry McCann, had already confirmed this piece of information to the 24horas saying that the multimillionaire neither paid any longer for his services nor for the payment of the detectives hired by the couple.
Despite the abandon of the multimillionaire, Clarence Mitchell assured to the 24horas that he will continue to work alongside Kate and Gerry McCann. The spokesperson of the couple, communication and public relations specialist has reduced the number of his declarations but keeps in permanent contact with the journalists.
Brian Kennedy would have seen his fortune diminishing for more than 50 million pounds which, however, would not be the only reason behind his decision to abandon his support to the couple – a source close to the multimillionaire told 24horas that Kennedy had neither appreciated the expenditures of the Spanish detectives (Metodo 3), nor the half a million pounds paid to an American company for six months of a supposed inquiry.

Paedophile says he knows nothing regarding Maddie

Raymond Hewllet

Raymond Hewlett, the English citizen denounced by the two former British detectives hired by the McCanns as the alleged suspect in Madeleine’s disappearance, denied to have seen or approached the child during the time he lived in the Algarve and has reaffirmed to the 24horas “that he had no involvement in the disappearance” of the child. This is Hewlett’s reaction to the information published during the past few weeks in the various German and British newspapers saying that the English citizen supposedly saw Maddie on two occasions.
Yesterday, in declarations to the “Sunday Mirror”, Hewlett confirmed what he had already said to the 24horas: “The only time I saw Madeleine McCann was on posters regarding the disappearance,” adding that he saw her once on television but “never in real life”.
“It is obvious why they are interested in me. But they can think what they want. I did not kill the girl. This is the truth and it will never change,” said the British to the English newspaper.
Sources close to the Leicestershire police revealed to the 24horas that the Hewlett’s profile does not correspond to the one of an eventual abductor of Madeleine and that “all the suspicions of the McCann’s detectives in relation to Hewlett are based on assumptions, as facts or evidences to support them in this direction do not exist”. – “In the first phase of the joint investigation carried out in Portugal, all the individuals registered on file or suspected of sexual aggression acts, paedophilia or abduction, had been investigated and eliminated as suspects one by one,” concluded the same source.
The alleged suspect, currently in Aachen (Germany) in the terminal phase of a cancer disease, confirmed having been questioned by the West Yorkshire police but denied having been questioned regarding Madeleine’s disappearance.
“Yes, I have spoken to the British police and am willing to collaborate as far as my state of health permits, but they were not interested in Maddie’s disappearance,” said Hewlett to the 24horas adding that on 3 May 2007 “I was not in Praia da Luz”.

Hewlett appeared on the front pages of the British tabloids after the two former British detectives, Dave Edgar and Arthur Cowley – known on Internet as “Dupont et Dupond” (Thomson and Thompson) referring to the two police officers of the comic book Tintin – revealed that the British citizen lived in the Algarve in 2007 and that the man had already been condemned in paedophilia cases in the 70s.
“An alleged paedophile who is about to die would be the ideal suspect to divert the attention of the public opinion and raise doubts in people’s minds,” said a PJ inspector in the Algarve to the 24horas, adding that “all the alleged suspects so far indicated by the private detectives had been investigated and nothing indicated that they were involved in the disappearance of the girl.”
Questioned regarding Gonçalo Amaral’s theory, the inspector only added that “Amaral has much experience, without enough elements he would never put this theory forward”.

The parents of two French students murdered by men who should have been in custody are outraged. So should we be

“Of course, misunderstandings can take a grip and be exacerbated by cultural differences. Remember how, in the case of Madeleine McCann’s disappearance, the British press viciously attacked the Portuguese judiciary system and its representatives, often only out of sheer ignorance.”

From “The Independent on Sunday” by Agnès Poirier

It often takes a foreigner to see things not only more clearly but differently; for us to understand who we are; to recognise our strengths as well as our weaknesses. And it often takes a foreigner to make us feel ashamed of things we have learnt to endure passively. Reflected in their eyes, suddenly things we have simply put up with fill us with horror.
Last week, the British only had to see the faces of Guy Bonomo and Françoise Villemont, the parents of the French students savagely murdered in London last year, and to read their dignified and moving statements, to feel disgust at the shortcomings of the British justice system. As Jack Straw admitted, the two murderers “ could and should have been in prison at the time of the killing”. A series of unimaginable and appalling blunders at every level of the justice system – the police, the courts, the prison and the probation services – allowed the murderers to torture and kill two research scientists with brilliant futures.
Didn’t we say at the time that the murder of John Monckton in 2004, committed by another convict who should have been in prison at the time, and was considered as the unfortunate result of a “ collective failure” by probation and prison staff, would surely put an end to such possibilities.
But the murders of Laurent Bonomo and Gabriel Ferez might just mark a new beginning for Britain’s probation system. Why this case and not another? Not only for the particularly atrocious ways the two students died, the details of which stunned the whole nation, but because they are foreigners: Laurent and Gabriel were guests to this country.
There is nothing more shameful than to fail those who come to you with an open mind and healthy curiosity, a generous predisposition towards your culture and way of thinking. Laurent and Gabriel were indeed overjoyed to be accepted for a threemonth placement at London’s Imperial College. For biochemistry students from Clermont-Ferrand in central France, Imperial College, in particular, and Britain in general, represent one of the most prestigious goals in the world of science.
Britain’s universities are full of enthusiastic students from all over the world who spend the best years of their lives in Britain and go back home with memories they will always cherish. They love the vibrancy of their city and embrace British culture – complete with its little prejudices – lending the country, in return, a part of their youth, optimism and dynamism. But when their lives are taken away in such tragic circumstances, the failure of the system becomes the very hosts’ failure. When did we go blind? Why didn’t we react before, hosts start wondering.
I felt the same embarrassment when the young Caroline Dickinson was murdered in 1996, at Pleine-Fougères, a little Breton village I know well. A lovely 13-year-old had pleaded with her parents to let her go on a trip to discover France and learn French. Her interest for France lead to her brutal death at the hands of a ruthless predator, one that might never have been caught had it not been for the persistence of her father.
Caroline’s was a shockingly botched case. There had been many flaws in the French investigation. A wrong suspect was arrested, leaving time for the murderer to flee to the United States. It took eight long years, during which John Dickinson campaigned and set about exposing the police investigation, for the French Justice to finally find and bring to court the murderer, a Spaniard.
Caroline’s killer may not have been French and the French justice system may not have failed the Dickinson family the way the British one has the Bonomos and Ferezs, but the feeling of infamy remains, only perhaps because the victim was a guest, more vulnerable to an environment she didn’t know; her family having to battle against a system they did not understand.
Many Portuguese people must have felt the same way when Madeleine McCann disappeared from their idyllic seaside resort and their police were seemingly losing time in the crucial first days of the investigation. I have many Italian friends embarrassed both by the murder of British student Meredith Kercher in Perugia and much of what transpired since.Of course, misunderstandings can take a grip and be exacerbated by cultural differences. Remember how, in the case of Madeleine McCann’s disappearance, the British press viciously attacked the Portuguese judiciary system and its representatives, often only out of sheer ignorance. The Portuguese police reacted by making the parents “ official suspects”.
Great expectations can lead to great disappointments. British institutions are generally held in high regard throughout the world. The shock of Laurent Bonomo and Gabriel Ferez’s parents on learning of this breakdown of the judicial system in protecting their sons is all the greater given the high hopes they originally had in such an admired system. Imagine their horror, their sense of betrayal, when they realised that this very system was indirectly responsible for their children’s killing. Last week they announced that they would sue Britain for failing its duties, and who can wonder?
It can take a foreigner to see the failures in our midst and to address them in a way we would perhaps never have dared ourselves.
Would the parents of Jean Charles de Menezes, the innocent Brazilian man shot by the police at Stockwell tube station, have pursued their case so far had they been British? The relentless campaigning of Caroline Dickinson’s father, John, allowed for instance the first DNA testing of a whole village, a procedure which had never been done before in France. He was also key in the appointment of a new investigative magistrate in charge of his daughter’s case, a very rare action in France.
Guests should not need to contribute to putting their host’s house in order. But sometimes it takes a foreigner ….